Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Los Angeles Temple day

Anthony & Lorrene Godinez. They were baptized last month. They came to the LA Temple with us to do service for others (baptisms).

Pretty flowers on the temple grounds.

Statues on temple grounds:

At the temple Visitors Center:

After going to the temple, we went to a mall for lunch and we saw a Tesla dealership. We went to look at the fun cars.

Dad pulling out his wallet to see if he had enough money to buy one!

This is construction of them adding on to the mall.

These are beautiful trees along the roads in town. These are Jacaranda Trees and they look like huge lilac trees. There are so many of them along the roads.

Letter directed to the grandkids:

Saturday Grandpa and I went down to Los Angeles to go to the temple. It is only about an hour from here but we have to go on a busy highway and there are so many people it usually takes an hour and a half or two hours to get there. There are 6 lanes of cars going one direction and 6 lanes going the other direction and it is always full. But we have mostly just been on it on Saturdays so I hear it is busy on weekdays also. The grass is turning brown/yellow since they have a water shortage and so are not watering the grass on the temple grounds. But it still is pretty out there. They have a big pool of water out front and there are flowers all around the pool. The pool is only about 6-10 inches deeps but looks so pretty and peaceful.

We took 3 other people with us. Two of the people are married and their names are Anthony and Lorrene and they were baptized last month so could not go in the temple yet but could do baptisms. So grandpa baptized and we were in the water being baptized for other people. They really loved it and was so special for them.

After that we went to the visitor’s center and saw lots of church videos there. Some were about families and some about temples and some videos about Joseph smith and Jesus. It was good to watch those videos.

Outside they have statues of children and mom and dads with their children. They are kind of small about 18 inches tall not like the large ones in Nauvoo. But so pretty.

On the way home we stopped at a mall to have some lunch and inside the mall was a car dealer and they sold really fast cars called Tesla. They go really fast and do not use gas but are electric. So you plug them in at night to charge them.

Grandpa got his wallet out to see if he could buy one but they are too expensive for us now. Smile

WE took a different road back home and it was called the PCH. Pacific Coast highway. The road down to Los Angeles was 6 lanes of cars but this road on the way back only had one lane each direction but it was along the coast and so we could see the beaches and people in the water and swimming and surfing. Really pretty along there. One of the men who came with us grew up here in California and he told us one part of the highway has lots of big homes and some were of actors and famous people. We did not see any famous people but he said Will Smith and Cher and Brad Pitt and Alex Ballwin and a few others all live along that highway. But fun to see all the sights.

Grandpa went out today to help a man who is getting out of the hospital and then taking him to his apt. WE did his laundry last week while he was in the hospital so that will be good to have all clean clothes. We are visiting a lady tonight we wants to know more about the church so we are going over to her house and teaching her about Jesus and Joseph Smith. Then later tonight we have our Book of Mormon class. We have about 10-12 people come to that. Some teenagers came last time so that was good.

We are making a book for each new missionary coming to California, and so the mission President and his wife decided to make a new book for each of the missionaries already here so I ordered 250 booklets. There are 40 pages and 3 pages in color and a spiral binding on them. They are about $7 each so I hope we will get a discount and can get them cheaper. But hard for me to spend that much money. So I hope they all turn out super nice.

Grandpa and I are doing really well and staying busy during the day and most nights. WE try to do some exploring in different towns around here on our day off on Saturday so we can see more things. Last Saturday we went to Los angles and the temple but did not go down town much. But we did go to Rodeo drive where they are expensive stores. We just drove by down the street and did not get out to see many things, but it was fun.

Then the Saturday before we went to Solvang and saw old fashion towns like are in Norway and Sweden. We went in lots of stores and saw some of the same things we saw in Norway. One of the stores had a big statue of a Danish Viking and he had his arms crossed in front of him and looked like he had a serious, stern look on his face. So Grandpa folded his arms and I took a picture of him looking like the Viking. We went to another store and they had jewelry for different parts of the world. Some of them were amber stones and so pretty. They had a chess set made of amber stones. Amber is yellowish gold in color. And then another thing was a small tree and instead of leaves they had amber stones. Then they also had some other jewelry made of some mineral that are only in the Dominican Republic, so really rare jewelry.

We went to lunch at a restaurant called the Red Viking. They had Danish meatballs, meat loaf, and potato salad, cole slaw, pickled herring, pickled beets, rolls and other good foods. Reminded me of foods we had when we were growing up. They also had a dessert called Aebleskiver and they are like a donut but all in a ball and then they spread raspberry sauce and powdered sugar on them. Can’t eat a lot of those but they are really good. Taste like donuts.

That day we took a new box spring to some missionaries and also a couch and lamp and a desk for them. Sometimes those things break and we replace them.

We had 7 new missionaries come in last week and when the new missionaries come the Mission President likes to take them to a high point in the area and there is a huge cross up there but they can also see for miles in almost all 4 directions. So I got to drive 4 Elders up there this last week and was fun to go up there so high up and see out over the ocean and city and houses. On a nice clear day we can see over the ocean and there are three islands close by that are fun to see. The islands are still miles out but from high on top of the hill you can see them. So the missionaries go to this high place and the Mission President asked that they put all their effort into their missionary work. There is a small ledge around this cross area so the Mission President has the new missionaries stand on the ledge and jump about 6 inches down to the concrete. So not much of a jump but symbolic saying I am all in and committed to this mission. They love it.

We have a zone activity days coming up this next week. Each missionary is to find out where their ancestors came from and then dress in that type of clothing and then tell a story about one of their ancestors. The Mission president had not invited us senior missionaries to come until last week so now wants us to go and bring a story and come in some sort of costume from that country that our ancestors came from. Wow not sure what to wear so will have to work on that for a while.

We were asking if we have Memorial Day off from work but I guess we work that day also. And the 4th of July so no holidays for us!! Not sure what kind of work we will do since most offices will be closed. Oh well I am sure we will find things to do.